A Question of Love by Jess Dee

while. Six months.”
    Tina’s gaze followed him as he paced the length of the room. “Where did you go?”
    “Europe.”
    “What about your job?”
    “I resigned. Gave up the lease on my house too.”
    “To get away for me?”
    “You and Connor,” he corrected.
    “And when you came back? Three and a half years ago?” The accusation was implicit in her question.
    Gabe stood still and looked at her. “I still loved you.” He brushed a hand over his face. “I wanted to come to you the day my flight landed. The day Connor told me you and he had split up.”
    “So why the hell didn’t you?”
    Gabe stared at her for a long time. “I did. That night.” Armed with a massive bunch of roses and a keen willingness to beg her to love him.
    “Gee, Gabe, I think I’d have remembered if you’d shown up at my doorstep.”
    “You weren’t home,” he told her tonelessly.
    “Ah.” She nodded. “So you tried once, had no luck and gave up. It never occurred to you to come back the next day? Or the day after that?”
    “You weren’t here, but your sister was.”
    Tina narrowed her eyes.
    “Seems Leanne and Michael were staying here for the week.” It hurt just to remember. Christ, he was turning into a pussy.
    Tina nodded as her eyes filled with comprehension. “Their place was being painted. They moved in while I was away with…” Her voice trailed off.
    “With your new boyfriend,” Gabe supplied. The boyfriend Tina was head-over-heels in love with. The boyfriend who Leanne was quick to point out, was sure to become the fiancé. The boyfriend who put a stop to all Gabe’s whimsical fantasies about Tina, although the two men never met.
    “Grant,” Tina said, voicing the name he never wanted to hear again.
    “I would have come back,” Gabe told her. “Every night if need be. But your sister said you were happy, said he was the real deal. It wasn’t fair for me to interfere.”
    “So you left,” she murmured, more to herself than to him.
    “So I left,” he agreed and let that hang between them for a while. “Is he the same guy?” Gabe asked after a moment.
    She looked confused. “Same as what?”
    “Is he the one you kissed in the coffee shop today?”
    “God, no.” She wrinkled her nose. “No, Grant and I didn’t last more than a couple of months.”
    “And the one this morning?”
    “Less than that,” Tina said. “He wasn’t right from the start.”
    Gabe stood up and paced the room, gritting his teeth to stop from swearing. He’d given Tina up for a relationship that had lasted a few fucking months? If the wall had been closer, he would have banged his head against it, hard. Fuck, what a waste of time. He could have had her for the last three and a half years. Instead he’d taken Leanne’s advice and walked away. Pretended to be the hero. And wound up lonely instead. He’d felt uprooted and alone in a city he’d lived in his whole life.
    Instead of fighting for Tina, like every instinct had dictated, he’d thrown himself into creating new roots. He’d bought a flat. The first property he’d ever owned. And he’d begun his own private practice rather than working for someone else. The new home and the practice had helped provide him with some stability, but they’d never eased the ache or the loneliness of not being with the woman he loved.
    “I don’t get it.” Tina looked at him, puzzled. “Why did you walk away three years ago when you found out I was with someone else, yet you hung around today after seeing me kiss Anthony?”
    “Because three years ago you were happy.” Or so Leanne had said anyway. “Today you looked miserable. I couldn’t just leave.” Ah hell, why not just tell her the full truth? “I didn’t want to leave. Not again. I wanted to see you, speak to you. I wanted another chance.”
    Tina dropped her head in her hands, covering her face. “Why are you telling me all this now? What do you want from me?”
    Once again Gabe dropped to his knees